My name is Heidi, I live in Vantaa (Helsinki metropolitan area) with my husband, our cat and our two chinchillas and work as a Dance teacher in Helsinki. My love for cooking comes from my late father who accustomed me to all kinds of exotic flavors when I was a child. I really wanted to learn how to make those Japanese dishes I rememered from my childhood and that's how I found JustHungry and JustBento. And... you know ;) I just fell in love with the whole Bento culture and really got carried away with it. Japanese cuisine is still quite unfamiliar here in Finland (well, there is a sushi boom going on at the moment but that's just about it...) so it's fun to introduce my family, friends and my colleagues to Japanese home cooking and Bento lunches. :)

I'm glad you asked! Traditional Finnish food is more Scandinavian. Different fish dishes are quite common here (salmon, herring, whitefish, zander and european perch for example) pork, beef and chicken are the most popular proteins here right now. And when there's a special occasion, we might serve something more fancy like reindeer or elk but the meat is quite expensive so it's not something we'd have for dinner every day. Potato is the basic carb (though nowadays pasta and rice are just as popular) and the most commonly used vegetables are carrots, cucumbers, green salad different cabbages, peas, rutabaga and beetroot.

But I have to say that especially the younger people in Finland don't really use that many traditional recipies in their every day home cooking nowadays. We all know how to make the basic Finnish macaroni casserole: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaroni_casserole and we love it :D but young people (like me for example) like to go more international for some reason. Maybe it's the lack of different spices in our traditional recipies. Many of our traditional foods taste a bit mild and in some cases the only spices used are just salt and pepper. But still there are many traditional dishes I like to make every now and then, the ones I've learned from my parents and grandmothers for example. Maybe I'll even post the best, bento friendly ones here some day ;)